Swinney on media reporting on allegations of racial slurs: "They should be fired"

Swinney was not happy with the media coverage of accusations of racial slurs on Saturday night

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney held his weekly press conference on Tuesday morning to preview the upcoming ACC Championship against Virginia Tech on Saturday night on ABC.

Swinney was asked during the press conference if he had reached out to Will Muschamp to talk to him after an allegation from a Gamecocks player about racial slurs on Saturday night.

"It is what it is. It’s a shame that the diversion took away from what happened on the field," Swinney said. "It’s disappointing. I give young people some grace. Young people will say some things from time to time and are emotional, so I don’t have a problem giving young people some grace."

Swinney is not upset with the young people but from the media that reported the allegations of racial slurs.

"The only problem I have is with some of the media people," Swinney said. "I don’t give them much grace. They don’t give me none either. I’m not necessarily talking about the people in this room. It’s like there’s no credibility anymore. You don’t need to confirm anything anymore. You just write it. Somebody said what? Headlines, they don’t care. Shoot first, ask questions later. That’s the mentality we have now in the media. It’s a shame. It really is a shame because you’re attacking people’s character. There won’t be a retraction. There won’t be an apology. You just attack someone’s character any time you want if you have the power of the pen or the blog. It used to not be that way. You had relationships, and people would ask you. Now, it’s like I was in the bathroom and the guy was in the third stall was on the phone and said this and that’s what I heard, and that’s headlines because that’s what sales. That’s disappointing. There’s zero accountability. You let me say something. None. No accountability whatsoever."

Swinney thinks that it took away from the 56-7 win for this team over the Gamecocks.

"Instead of the headlines being 23-1 in the last two years or these seniors just won their 46th game or the largest margin of victory ever for an ACC versus an SEC opponent or we’ve only had six 11-win seasons at Clemson and we’ve had four in the last five years," Swinney said. "Instead of those being the headlines and one of the most dominant performances ever, the headline is what somebody said, give me a break. I can give grace to the young people. It’s not about that. I give total grace to that, but for the adults who will take anything and go and write it and spin it and headline it the way they want it to get people to click on it, shame on them. But, that’s the world we live in, and that’s sad, with zero accountability. A lot of those people should be fired. They should be fired. They should be, but there’s zero accountability. The people with the microphone just say what they want to say. It doesn’t matter how they attack people’s character or how they attack whatever. They don’t say that."

Swinney finished up by saying "Great question. Nice seeing y'all. See you in Orlando."